Chuck Hafner back in action for kids
Citizens for Education’s Kids First group is back in action.
The group of volunteers is encouraging Central Valley voters to pass a $75.76 million construction bond in November.
Chuck Hafner, a former CV school board member and retired principal, Anne Long, current school board member, and Patty Weiser, one of the leaders of Kids First, met as the group’s new co-chairs Monday to plan for what could be one of the group’s greatest challenges.
Hafner is an old hand when it comes to rallying the community for the education of CV students.
Ten years ago, he and two other retired school administrators, along with a veteran volunteer, led a tough campaign to pass a $23 million bond issue that had failed three times in a row.
That was the beginning of Kids First campaigns. Hafner and his group put in 12-hour days, formed 30 committees covering everything from finance to thank-you notes, and sent thousands of letters to Spokane Valley residents reminding them of the importance of schools in a community.
In 1998, Hafner worked to help pass the district’s $78 million school bond, the largest ever proposed in Spokane County. This bond paid for the district’s new University and Central Valley high schools.
What brings the 74-year-old out of campaign retirement?
“First of all, we need classrooms for the kids, and secondly there are so many things that are happening with development,” said Hafner. “For every house or unit built, there’s an impact on the schools. All this development is hurting the schools.”
If developers would pay impact fees, while not a huge amount of money, it would help offset the district’s cost of adding more space. This is something they’ll be working on, Hafner said.
He is also suggesting using some of the same strategies that worked in the past.
“In ‘96 we had so many committees and people involved. That was one of our goals. If I recall, almost every precinct passed by the largest percent in CV history, because of the involvement of people. If you have that, there’s no reason to fail,” said Hafner.
This March, several hundred community volunteers worked to pass the district’s three-year replacement maintenance and operations levy in the first all vote-by-mail election. However, the $55.2 million construction bond, also on the ballot, received only 57 percent of the 60 percent needed to pass.
November’s construction bond is $20 million more than the March bond because of increases in building costs and inflation, say district officials.
Like most people in the district, Hafner said he was “flabbergasted” that there could be that big of an increase in such a short time.
“If I have to go out and talk to business people and community members, I have to be assured that is what we have to have. If that wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t be involved in the bond issue.
“We’re going to make sure that we take the building costs and show why they’ve increased. I don’t care whether it’s the cost of the nails or wallboard or whatever it may be. I’m a straight talker, and I’ll say this is why we need it,” said Hafner.
The proposed bond would pay for a new elementary and middle school on the district’s east side, where continued development has caused overcrowding.
Ponderosa and Opportunity elementary schools also would be remodeled with the bond funds.
The bond proposed in March also included the remodeling of Greenacres Elementary, which will now have to wait until state modernization reimbursement funds are available, which could be in 2010 or later. Any remaining state aid would be used for cooling systems, technology upgrades and parking improvements at Broadway, Chester, Progress, Summit, University and Sunrise elementary schools.
“If this fails, I’m not sure what the district will do. We’re in a world of hurt. Maybe people will just need to forget about going out for dinner or a show a couple times a month. The education of our kids is the most important thing,” said Hafner.